As anyone who has gleaned their beauty queen knowledge from Miss Congeniality will tell you, Miss America contestants are “smart, terrific people who are just trying to make a difference in the world”. And yet we still seem to expect contestants to play it safe when asked a politically-charged question live on stage.

So, when Miss Texas, Margana Wood, was asked about President Donald Trump choosing to remain silent after violence broke out at a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, many perhaps uncharitably assumed that she would offer up a polite and non-committal answer (and mentally filed away the question, “They ask that in beauty contests?!” for another day).

The ‘Unite the Right’ rally on 12 August involved white supremacists waving Nazi flags and shouting Nazi-linked chants as they marched on the University of Virginia. Tragically, the events resulted in three deaths and 19 people injured when a car crashed into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters.

Trump later claimed that there was blame “on many sides” for the violence, and that there were “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis. “I think there is blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there is blame on both sides,” he reiterated during a later press conference.

“You had a group on one side that was bad and a group on the other side that was very violent.”

But, while Trump refrained from calling the Charlottesville attack an act of terrorism, contestant Wood absolutely did not. Instead, she decided to use her time on the Miss America stage to tell the world what she really feels about neo-Nazism and white supremacy.

“I think that the white supremacist issue, it was very obvious that it was a terrorist attack,” said Wood, “and I think that President Donald Trump should have made a statement earlier addressing the fact.

“Making sure all Americans feel safe in this country – that is the number one issue right now.”

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Kayleigh Dray

Kayleigh Dray is editor of Stylist.co.uk, where she chases after rogue apostrophes and specialises in films, comic books, feminism and television. On a weekend, you can usually find her drinking copious amounts of tea and playing boardgames with her friends.